The present invention relates to optical recording medium having a printed layer printed with ink which can be written on.
In some recording media, in which playback or recording is done by laser light, for example, a CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) having a recording layer in which rewriting of one time or multiple times by a user is possible, an entry area in which so-called personal information, such as titles of records, date of record, etc. can be filled in by the user with characters, symbols, etc. and is provided on a side opposite to an incident side of laser light of the recording medium. In this entry area methods of entry by handwriting with a felt pen, by ink jet recording, so-called jet printing, or by transferring of colored ink by heat and pressure applied to a film having a colored ink layer may be applicable.
It has been proposed to provide a personal information entry area constituted by an ink-accepting layer prepared so that entry of personal information etc. by the above described felt pen or jet printer, transferring of colored ink by film having a colored ink layer, etc. may be sufficiently enabled.
In recent years, use of multiple ink nozzles makes multi-color recording having higher definition easier, and especially multi-color ink jet recording by various kinds of ink jet recording systems were carried out. In recent years printers used for ink jet recording have become to have high performance, and quality improvement of ink-accepting layer of the above described area for entry of personal information has become to be required. Namely, bleeding stability of printed image, and securing of a high-gloss printed surface, similar to print image quality of a print image on photographic paper, resulting from smoothness of a printed surface have been demanded.
However, conventionally, in plenty of cases, ink for ink jet recordings for recording on this ink-accepting layer has a constitution in which polyhydric alcohol etc. is added to water ink mainly including water as a principal component in order to avoid clogging of a nozzle, and to improve ejecting characteristics, for safety and record characteristics. Therefore, for the purpose of eliminating stickiness for strong adhesion of dyestuff in the ink, for quick absorption of water in the ink, and for improvement in handling property, an ink-accepting layer currently formed in an optical recording media, such as CD-R, includes a large amount of commonly known fillers, such as silica, talc, clay, zeolite, calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, magnesium carbonate, barium sulfate, mica, synthetic mica, diatomaceous earth, aluminum hydroxide, titanium oxide, powder cellulose, and powder protein. Therefore, a front face of the ink-accepting layer tends to be rough, and an ink-accepting layer in which a high-gloss printed surface similar to print image quality of a print image on photographic paper has not yet been realized.
The present invention is made in view of such a conventional actual situation, and aims at providing an optical information medium provided with an ink-accepting layer in which a high-gloss printed surface similar to a print image quality of print image on photographic paper is secured.